Well, it’s that time of year again where the seemingly ever-growing International Exchange Group (IEG) bring together four nations and ask “do you speak music?” More specifically, new, exciting music artists from France, Germany, Canada, the Netherlands and Scotland will come together for a celebratory one-day festival at Glasgow’s Beresford Lounge. 3rd Year Commercial Music students take the tour management reigns each year, gaining valuable music industry experience. This year is set to be bigger and better (the aim every year, of course), with a jam-packed day of live music scheduled. More details here: https://www.facebook.com/uwsmusicnews

Associate Lecturer and PhD Researcher Iain Taylor delivered a seminar on the 27th March entitled “Revaluing a Devalued Format? Exploring Cassette Culture in Scotland’s Independent Music Scene”. The seminar (drawing upon preliminary research for his thesis) focused on the resurgence of the music cassette as a means of music distribution in indie and punk circles of Scotland’s independent music scene. Drawing upon interviews with participants in the Scottish indie scene including musicians, record labels, and fans, the seminar outlined ways that value is being attached (or reattached) to the cassette as a cultural artefact, and how the cassette’s new-found partnership with the digital download raises future questions on how we attach value to recorded music artefacts in an age of increasing digital intangibility.

Iain will be delivering a developed version of the seminar at the next Scottish Pop Academic Network meeting at the CCA in Glasgow on the 9th of May, and a conference paper at the University of Sussex’s ‘Music and Materialities’ conference in Brighton on the 28th and 29th of June.

During the session eight tracks were recorded with the world renowned Orchestra. UWS funded Mark’s travel to take part in the recordings and document the session.Commercial Sound Production programme leader Paul McGeechan travelled to Prague to record for his collaborative album project. The new recording will feature “The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra” along with highly acclaimed Scottish singers Paul Buchanan “The Blue Nile”, Karen Matheson “Capercaillie” and Julie Fowlis.

“It was fantastic to be in such an environment and witness the high level of professionalism of the players and recording team. I’d like to thank Paul and UWS for inviting me on the trip, it was very inspiring!” – Mark Sinclair.

Programme Leader and Artist, David Scott, is with the MA Songwriting & Performance students (often referred to as the ‘MASPERS’) in Chicago today, where a glorious variety of collaborative songwriting has taken place. The MASPERS were joined by the award-winning (and UWS alumni) Rebecca Wallace. Follow the excitement of this programme on Twitter @UWSMASP / #UWSMASP
.

Artist, Broadcaster and UWS Associate Lecturer, Roddy Hart, featured on Craig Ferguson’s radio show in the USA earlier this year. Hart bagged himself a fantastic one-week residency on Ferguson’s show, broadcasting nationwide.

Exhibiting artists group from the University of the West of Scotland’s (UWS) School of Creative & Cultural Industries – BA (Hons) Digital Art 3rd and 4th year, Masters students from Creative Media Practice – both based at UWS Ayr Campus and Alumni from both under and postgraduate programmes.

A series of short films and screen projects created by Contemporary Screen Acting Students will be playing throughout the Open Studios event. This new programme combines the skills of screen writing, screen acting, editing, performance and the use of new media to disseminate student work online.

]]>https://uwscommercialmusic.wordpress.com/2014/04/19/uws-open-studios-day-saturday-26th-april-ayr-campus/feed/0UWS open studiosuwscommercialmusicUWS Open StudiosScottish Pop Academics Network (SPAN) @ CCA – 9th Mayhttps://uwscommercialmusic.wordpress.com/2014/04/09/scottish-pop-academics-network-span-cca-9th-may/
https://uwscommercialmusic.wordpress.com/2014/04/09/scottish-pop-academics-network-span-cca-9th-may/#respondWed, 09 Apr 2014 11:32:39 +0000http://uwscommercialmusic.wordpress.com/?p=352Continue reading →]]>UWS is to host the next meeting of SPAN (Scottish Pop Academics Network) at the CCA on the 9th of May (3pm).

Pictured: Joanna Newsom [Sourced from Pitchfork.com]

Jo Collinson Scott and Iain Taylor are both presenting research papers, with Iain’s entitled “Revaluing a Devalued Medium? Exploring Cassette Culture in Scotland’s Independent Music Scene” and Jo’s: “‘Avoid it like the plague’: An Exploration of Cliché in Pop Song”.

Jo Collinson Scott is to present alongside other Cambridge Companion contributors as part of a panel on ‘Defining the Singer Songwriter’ at IASPM UK and Ireland Beinnial Conference 2014 in Cork. She will be talking about her research on Joanna Newsom and ‘New Weird America’.

Scottish synthpop / rock ‘n’ roll band are set to release their first single of 2014. Having already gained radio airplay for the single in Scotland, the band (with newly recruited Chris Kelly on guitar) will perform to an ‘invite-only’ crowd including press and labels at Glasgow’s Nice ‘N’ Sleazy’s on Saturday 1st February. Pre-order the debut album through Pledge Music (percentage of proceeds will go to Marie Curie Cancer Care): http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/suspire

]]>https://uwscommercialmusic.wordpress.com/2013/12/24/releases-moonshine-suspire/feed/0uwscommercialmusicMoonshine_sleeveart_Suspire (2)[RELEASES]:’WHEN WE LIVED IN THE CROOK OF A TREE’ (JO MANGO)https://uwscommercialmusic.wordpress.com/2013/12/24/when-we-lived-in-the-crook-of-a-tree-jo-mango/
https://uwscommercialmusic.wordpress.com/2013/12/24/when-we-lived-in-the-crook-of-a-tree-jo-mango/#respondTue, 24 Dec 2013 21:33:30 +0000http://uwscommercialmusic.wordpress.com/?p=340Continue reading →]]>‘When We Lived in the Crook of a Tree’ (JO MANGO)

DEC 2013

Jo Collinson Scott’s musical alter-ego ‘Jo Mango’ released a new EP on the 1st of December. It is titled ‘When We Lived in the Crook of a Tree’ and is based on research into ‘Angela Carter’s Book of Fairy Tales’ – a collection of folk stories from around the world that feature female protagonists. The EP was produced by Michael John McCarthy (a Glasgow-based musician and composer, who has worked with Belle and Sebastian on their latest film, the National Theatre of Scotland on numerous productions and with his own Chemikal Underground band, Zoey Van Goey) and released by Olive Grove Records. The title track has a beautifully illustrated music video which was premiered on Art Rocker and can be viewed here: http://www.artrocker.tv/videos/article/video-jo-mango-when-we-lived-in-the-crook-of-a-tree

]]>https://uwscommercialmusic.wordpress.com/2013/12/24/when-we-lived-in-the-crook-of-a-tree-jo-mango/feed/0uwscommercialmusicWWLITCOAT_front_web_2013-10-22-01INAUGURAL MUSIC ENTREPRENEURSHIP CONFERENCE AT UWShttps://uwscommercialmusic.wordpress.com/2013/12/24/inaugural-music-entrepreneurship-conference-at-uws/
https://uwscommercialmusic.wordpress.com/2013/12/24/inaugural-music-entrepreneurship-conference-at-uws/#respondTue, 24 Dec 2013 21:21:42 +0000http://uwscommercialmusic.wordpress.com/?p=337Continue reading →]]>University of the West of Scotland (UWS) hosted its first annual ‘Music Entrepreneurship’ conference at the Ayr Campus on Wednesday 20 November 2013.

The conference, organised by fourth year UWS Commercial Music students as part of their coursework, ran in three simultaneous streams, each examining a different aspect of music entrepreneurship: musicians and entrepreneurs, the role of technology in music entrepreneurship, and the influence of the research of theorist Joseph Schumpeter on music entrepreneurship.

Around 50 students delivered individual papers across a wide variety of topics including: hip-hop artists as entrepreneurs, artists’ rights as music entrepreneurs, music artists as social entrepreneurs, and innovation within the music industry itself.

The conference also hosted three keynote speakers active in Scottish music entrepreneurship: Simon Thoumire, musician, composer, recording label owner and traditional Scottish music and culture activist as well as two alumni of the Commercial Music programme: Suzie Letton, Adminstrator and Artist Relations Manager at Scottish digital music distributor EmuBands and Steve Broadfoot, owner and CEO of LugPlugs, a hearing protection delivery system for people who work in the live music industry.

UWS Commercial Music student David Bell, one of the student organisers of the event, said: “We were delighted to be hosting this event which aims to pinpoint some key entrepreneurial activities that have been occurring within the industry recently, as well as critiquing some of the ideals surrounding music artists as entrepreneurs.

“It is hoped that some of the discussions will provide a practical and theoretical insight towards how young artists starting out in their musical career can use strategic entrepreneurial thinking to their advantage.”

The conference coincided with Global Entrepreneurship Week, a worldwide event dedicated to promoting new entrepreneurial thinking and innovation, which ran from 18-22 November.